Utilitarian design is an art concept that argues for the products to be designed based on the

utility In economics, utility is a measure of a certain person's satisfaction from a certain state of the world. Over time, the term has been used with at least two meanings. * In a normative context, utility refers to a goal or objective that we wish ...

(as opposed to the "contemplated pleasure" of

beauty Beauty is commonly described as a feature of objects that makes them pleasure, pleasurable to perceive. Such objects include landscapes, sunsets, humans and works of art. Beauty, art and taste are the main subjects of aesthetics, one of the fie ...

). For example, an object intended for a narrow and practical purpose does not need to be aesthetically pleasing, but it must be effective for its task and inexpensive: a steel power pylon carries electric wires just as well as a marble column would, and at a much lower cost. While an artefact designed with complete disregard of appearance (''purely'' or ''strictly utilitarian design'') can be imagined, David Pye argues that such objects do not exist, as the human nature makes it impossible to design anything without even a slightest consideration of its appearance. As far back as in the

Paleolithic Age The Paleolithic or Palaeolithic ( years ago) ( ), also called the Old Stone Age (), is a period in human prehistory that is distinguished by the original development of stone tools, and which represents almost the entire period of human prehist ...

, the stone tools were sometimes manufactured with better quality than the one required for the task. According to Pye, in practice the "purely utilitarian" objects are the ones made to fit the purpose at the lowest possible cost, from

scaffolding Scaffolding, also called scaffold or staging, is a temporary structure used to support a work crew and materials to aid in the construction, maintenance and repair of buildings, bridges and all other human-made structures. Scaffolds are widely u ...

to an

oil refinery An oil refinery or petroleum refinery is an industrial processes, industrial process Factory, plant where petroleum (crude oil) is transformed and refining, refined into products such as gasoline (petrol), diesel fuel, Bitumen, asphalt base, ...

. In many cases making things more pleasing to the eye incurs no extra cost, and the techniques that result in better appearance are chosen in these cases. For example, the proper application of

plaster Plaster is a building material used for the protective or decorative coating of walls and ceilings and for moulding and casting decorative elements. In English, "plaster" usually means a material used for the interiors of buildings, while "re ...

to brick walls fulfills both functional (stopping the drafts) and aesthetic (smooth surface) goals. There is no clear boundary between the result of the utilitarian design and an object of art, with a classic example provided by

cars A car, or an automobile, is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of cars state that they run primarily on roads, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport people rather than cargo. There are around one billio ...

. An automobile is simultaneously a very utilitarian mean of transportation and a highly personalized extension of ego. Since the innovations in the utility and appearance are covered by two different mechanisms of intellectual property protection (

patents A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an sufficiency of disclosure, enabling discl ...

for functionality,

copyrights A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive legal right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, ...

and

trademarks A trademark (also written trade mark or trade-mark) is a form of intellectual property that consists of a word, phrase, symbol, design, or a combination that identifies a product or service from a particular source and distinguishes it from ot ...

for aesthetics), issues of the utilitarian design are of great interest to the courts and legal scholars. The concept of utilitarian design is strongly associated with the

Bauhaus The Staatliches Bauhaus (), commonly known as the , was a German art school operational from 1919 to 1933 that combined Decorative arts, crafts and the fine arts.Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 4th edn., ...

school that championed it in the early 20th century.

Functionalism

The rise of

modernism Modernism was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experimentation, abstraction, and Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy), subjective experience. Philosophy, politics, architecture, and soc ...

in the late 19th and early 20th century caused utilitarian design, based on utility and economy, to be declared beautiful through a new aesthetic doctrine, functionalism. The initial stance of functionalists was uncompromising: a design using extravagant materials or ornamental elements cannot be beautiful;

Adolf Loos Adolf Franz Karl Viktor Maria Loos (; 10 December 1870 – 23 August 1933) was an Austrian and Czechoslovak architect, influential European theorist, and a polemicist of modern architecture. He was inspired by modernism and a widely-known c ...

titled his 1908 essay "

Ornament and Crime "Ornament and Crime" is an essay and lecture by Modernism, modernist architect Adolf Loos that criticizes ornament (art), ornament in useful objects. History Contrary to popular belief that it was composed in 1908, Adolf Loos first gave the lec ...

". While this idealistic position softened with time, the "

form follows function Form follows function is a principle of design associated with late 19th- and early 20th-century architecture and industrial design in general, which states that the appearance and structure of a building or object ( architectural form) should p ...

" idea remains highly influential, especially in

architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and construction, constructi ...

Charles and Ray Eames Charles Eames ( Charles Eames, Jr) and Ray Eames ( Ray-Bernice Eames) were an American married couple of industrial designers who made significant historical contributions to the development of modern architecture and furniture through the work of ...

stated that, when it comes to furniture, utility is more durable than appearance: "what works good is better than what looks good, the looks good can change, but what works, works". The functionalism of furniture is pervasive since the advent of the

International Style The International Style is a major architectural style and movement that began in western Europe in the 1920s and dominated modern architecture until the 1970s. It is defined by strict adherence to Functionalism (architecture), functional and Fo ...

and especially noticeable in Scandinavian Modern.

Utility and copyright

United States

In the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

, the "utilitarian article" (defined by 17 U.S.C. § 101 as an

article of manufacture In United States patent law, an article of manufacture (also termed a manufacture) is one of the four principal categories of things that may be patented. The other three are a process (also termed a method), a machine A machine is a physical ...

with an "intrinsic utilitarian function") may, in addition to patents, be protected by

copyright A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive legal right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, ...

per

Copyright Act of 1976 The Copyright Act of 1976 is a United States copyright law and remains the primary basis of copyright law in the United States, as amended by several later enacted copyright provisions. The Act spells out the basic rights of copyright holders, ...

if it possesses pictorial, graphic, or sculptural (PGS) features. For the copyright laws to apply to the PGS features, it should be possible to separate them from the pure utilitarian design. The US courts hold the position that trademark protection is only possible for features that are not "functional" and therefore "dispensable", like an identifying name. Granting trademark protection for functional features, "essential to the use or purpose of the article" or " ffectingthe cost or quality of the article" would effectively grant a patent of unlimited duration and thus create a monopoly. This antitrust stand, a so-called " functionality doctrine", is especially pronounced since 1995 (

US Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all Federal tribunals in the United States, U.S. federal court cases, and over Stat ...

decision in Qualitex Co. v. Jacobson Products Co.).

European Union

In the EU, the legal treatment of the designs was harmonized in 1998 via the Directive on the legal protection of designs 98/71/EC. Similarly to the US, details of appearance that are dictated by the utility are excluded from protection.

References

Sources

* * * * * * * * * * * {{cite book , last1=Sturgis , first1=Daniel , author1-link=Daniel Sturgis , title=Bauhaus: Utopia in Crisis , date=2019 , publisher=

Camberwell College of Arts Camberwell College of Arts is a constituent college of the University of the Arts London, a public art and design university in London, England. The college offers further and higher education programmes, including postgraduate and PhD awards. ...